From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,bc1361a952ec75ca X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-07-31 10:31:22 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!feed.textport.net!newsfeed.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp!sjc-peer.news.verio.net!news.verio.net!sea-read.news.verio.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada From: Brian Rogoff Subject: Re: How to make Ada a dominant language In-Reply-To: <3B662D8E.233E235A@sneakemail.com> Message-ID: References: <3B6555ED.9B0B0420@sneakemail.com> <9k3l9r$10i2$1@pa.aaanet.ru> <3B656345.64AB603A@sneakemail.com> <9k3oa1$2qg8$1@pa.aaanet.ru> <3B657715.7EC592D9@sneakemail.com> <3B662D8E.233E235A@sneakemail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 17:31:11 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 206.184.139.136 X-Complaints-To: abuse@verio.net X-Trace: sea-read.news.verio.net 996600671 206.184.139.136 (Tue, 31 Jul 2001 17:31:11 GMT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 17:31:11 GMT Organization: Verio Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:10884 Date: 2001-07-31T17:31:11+00:00 List-Id: On Mon, 30 Jul 2001, Russ Paielli wrote: > Brian Rogoff wrote: > > On Mon, 30 Jul 2001, Russ Paielli wrote: > > > I am new to Ada, and I believe that gives me a certain perspective that > > > Ada veterans lack. > > > > That's true. Do you also acknowledge that people with more experience may > > have a certain perspective that you lack? > > Of course I do. I have no doubt they know more about Ada than I do, but > I also have no doubt that they have unwittingly conditioned themselves > to overlook the cosmetic warts of the language. That's a profoundly stupid statement. Using a similar argument, any expert opinion is now rendered inferior to that of a newbie! I suspect I know Ada better than you do right now. Believe it ot not, I also know several other languages, some of which I consider better than Ada for certain tasks. The other languages have different syntaxes than Ada, some are popular, some not. I'm not hopelessly enamored of Ada syntax, as you seem to think all Ada programmers are. Stop assuming other people are somehow broken, and *listen* to why they disagree with you. Python didn't get successful on account of its syntax, but mainly (IMO of course) because Perl is so especially ugly that a large group of script users was ready to jump on practically anything useful, and Python was there "firstest with the mostest". Icon was certainly before Python, but it lacked a really useful system interface. Ruby is also becoming popular; maybe it will pass Python one day. Who knows? > > No such thing as "the best programming language". The criticism isn't > > really all irrelevant, either. IMO, if you want to make Ada more > > successful just write tools that you want (in Ada of course) and make the > > source available under some open source license. It's just a question of > > making the activation energy for choosing Ada low enough... > > Good luck, but you may have even more of an uphill battle than I have. > :') No, Ada is slowly becoming a bit more popular, and more code is open sourced. So there is a very slight chance that in a few years (5-7?) Ada will achieve sufficient (for me :) popularity outside of the DoD. Yours quest is quixotic, to say the least. Have fun doing battle with those giants! ;-) -- Brian